It looks good, Moose. I bought my Velbon Maxi on your recommendation a few
years ago and I still have it and use it occasionally. But that was only
.75kg. The UT43 is 1.4kg and yours is about 1.23kg. That's quite a difference
to shove into a suitcase for airline travel.
How does it feel?
Chris
On 15 Aug 14, at 06:46, Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Well, not really; matte black, actually.
>
> My never ending search for the perfect travel/field tripod has landed another
> new one chez Moose.
>
> Waaay back, I had a Velbon Max i 343e, which I quite liked with my 300D. Then
> came the 5D, and the little tripod and small Velbon QR plates weren't up to
> the task.
>
> Then the Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 came to the rescue, with A-S style QR. Now that
> I've gone µ4/3, it's bigger and heavier than I need. Still a first rate
> tripod, but I found myself not using it. Recently, I've been carrying the
> 343e again, in spite of the fact that I dropped it on a rock and one leg
> won't collapse all the way.
>
> Now Velbon's done it again. They've combined the newish idea from others of
> allowing the legs to flip 180 to store parallel to the center post with an
> improved version of the single twist, multi-section legs they tried before.
>
> The result is only slightly heavier than the 343e, much smaller collapsed,
> much more solid, much more flexible and incredibly quick to deploy and
> un-deploy.
>
> The legs are amazing. Assuming they keep working properly (5 year warranty!),
> they are both quick and precise. Untwist the rubber foot, and it makes little
> clicks. One click, pull, and you get one section extended, two clicks for two
> sections, and so on. Six sections, but more stable than the 343e's four.
>
> I've used about three times, including the close-up of the mini OM-1 I just
> posted, and am liking it a lot so far.
>
> They sell it in four packages. For The US (& Canada?), they seem to have
> decided we need big QR plates, and sell one with pan head and one with ball
> head with a big plate system, which is ridiculous on a µ4/3 camera body; WAY
> too deep.
>
> For at least Asia, they continue with their small plates, which is the type
> I've been using. I could have bought a ball head one with the small plates
> from Japan, but not in time for our trip. For less money, I bought the pan
> head US one from B&H. I've wanted a half decent pan head anyway, and I've put
> my old Velbon QR head on the tripod for most use.
>
> This is the one I bought.
> <http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/769662-REG/Velbon_UT_45L_UT_45L_6_Section_Aluminum.html>
>
> B&H has a new shipping option. For anything over $50, they offer free
> expedited shipping, UPS three day select. This is a huge improvement for
> those of us far from them, and makes them competitive with Amazon for me.
>
> My tripod arrived in three days, instead of a week or more or paying extra.
--
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